‘Press releases’

We ask the entire Montreal Qc Community, and Canada for your support and solidarity so that LUCY is released and stays in Canada. Lucy Granados; Immigrant mother of 3 children; After living 9 years in Canada, on March 20 she was violently arrested by the Border Agents of Canada and sent to the Montreal Laval Detention Center. Currently her health is very delicate and at the same time at risk of deportation for Friday April 13, 2018.

Lucy says: “There are no windows. I want to see some light. I want to breathe. I do not even remember my own name anymore.”

Like Lucy Granados there are tens of thousands of other undocumented people in Montreal, Lucy works long hours for a misery salary. Through her involvement with community organizations such as the Non-Status Women’s Collective and the Temporary Agency Workers’ Association, she has made our society better.

Lucy’s violent arrest continues to terrorize her. She had recurring reversals of the four CBSA officers who used excessive force to stop her, injuring the tendon in her arm and leaving a bruise on her neck. Since her detention, Lucy has been hospitalized twice urgently. In the hospital, her feet were handcuffed. Two CBSA officers were at the entrance of his room. Lucy was not entitled to any appeal and visit except her lawyer.

Neither her lawyer nor her family were informed of her hospitalization. We are asking the Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, to stop the deportation process for Lucy. We are asking the Minister of Immigration, Mr. Ahmed Hussen, to fulfill his legal duties and to accept Lucy’s request for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. We denounce the violence and abuse of the CBSA and demand the initiation of an investigation into the treatment of Lucy Francineth Granados.

MEXICAN PRESIDENT ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO VISITS QUEBEC TO DISCUSS STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH PHILIPPE COUILLARD- BUT WHAT OF HUMAN RIGHTS?

Québec- June 27, 2016. Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto will be meeting premier Philippe Couillard today in order to pursue and reinforce economic partnerships that have existed between Quebec and Mexico for more than 35 years. However, the question of human rights in Mexico, a country where violence has spread throughout the territory through drug cartels and the political system- does not appear to be on the agenda.

During the breakfast discussion “Quebec and Mexico: Strategic Partners in the Era of the New Economy” at the Chateau Frontenac, Quebec civil society members in solidarity with temporary workers and the peoples of Mexico will be gathering at the Place d’Armes (10 Saint-Louis) on Monday, June 27th from 11am to 2pm to demand:

an end to state violence and repression against the Mexican people, and a guarantee of freedom of expression;

an end to massacres, forced disappearances, and to systemic and systematic violence in Mexico;

that President Peña Nieto respond to multiples appeals issued by the UN and by human rights organizations to shed light on civilian massacres (students, teachers, journalists, members of activist organizations and of civil society) and bring those responsable for these crimes to justice;

an end to complicity on the part of the Quebec and Canadian government, who have closed their eyes to the crimes committed by the Mexican state, and this in the name of economic interests.

On Sunday, June 19th at Nochixtlan in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, teachers affiliated with the CNTE

(National Coordination of Education Workers - Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación), who had been organizing for three years to demand that workers rights be respected in the wake of the Peña Nieto government’s education reform, were brutally attacked by federal and Oaxacan state police, who opened fired on a peaceful demonstration. The attack killed 11 people, while 90 were injured and many others remain unaccounted for.

In September 2014, events in Ayotzinapa shook Mexico and the international committee. Six people were killed, among them 3 students, while 43 students disappeared and 22 people were seriously injured, with federal and Guerrero state police implicated in the violence. An investigation led by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independant Experts (GIEI) refuted the evidence submitted by the Mexican Attorney General to shed light on the events. In April 2015, family members of the 43 disappeared students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Normal School of Ayotzinapa and their legal representative travelled to Canada to denounce state violence and unaccountability in Mexico. The delegation visited the National Assembly of Quebec, who unanimously passed a motion of solidarity. These events are emblematic of the Peña Nieto, government, where massive attacks have been perpetrated by the forces of order, as was the case in Ostula, Apatzingan, Tlatlaya, etc.

Generalized violence in Mexico has intensified over the past decade, forcing thousands to flee towards other countries, including Canada. Many refugee claims have been refused on grounds of insufficient evidence, particularly since Mexico was listed in 2013 as a Designated Country of Origin (DCO), which has restricted claimants’ recourse to seek asylum in Canada, even when they are facing real threats.

Many Mexicans arrive in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SWAP), which exposes Mexican workers to many forms of exploitation and abuse. Lack of Canadian labour market mobility, inability to obtain permanent residency, and workplace isolation are among the structural conditions that Mexican agricultural workers must accept to work in Canada, conferring all power to Canadian employers. While this program is often presented as a winning formula for all parties involved, it represents the other side of the coin where the criminilization of migration is concerned, as it is the only “legal” channel for international mobility.

A commemoration for the disappearance of the 43 students from the rural teacher training college of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico

For six months, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI)—an international group of researchers convened by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH)—has been leading another investigation on the events of 26 September 2014, when 43 students from the rural teacher training college of Ayotzinapa were forcibly disappeared in Iguala by the corrupt municipal police force.

The commission’s report accuses federal authorities and the military of failing to intervene despite their knowledge that the municipal police had attacked students at nine different locations, causing many more victims than the oft-cited six dead, 40 injured and 43 disappeared. These historical facts have been converted into historic lies in the official telling of events.
Despite the commission’s investigation, the government has not allowed experts to interrogate the military. The Ministry of Defense blocked various security cameras that were on site. The CIDH made 20 recommendations to the government, which include conducting an open investigation on the responsibilities of the federal police and the army.
Human rights organizations have also voiced their criticism. Amnesty International denounces “the lack of will on the part of authorities to find the students and bring those responsible to justice.”

The CIDH’s critical report has renewed the anger of the parents of the 43 students, who have decried the mass disappearance as a crime of the state concealed by a government that wants to maintain its official version of events. Hilda Legideño Vargas, the mother of one of the students, declared that “the state must pay for the consequences of its lies, its mistakes, and must continue with the investigation.”

“According to the Mexican government’s statistics, there are more than 26,000 people who have been forcibly disappeared over the past seven years. How can a democratic country have this kind of record, one which exceeds that of the military dictatorships of Latin America, Chile or Argentina in the 70s and 80s?” said Marie Eve Marleau, coordinator of the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America.

Despite this alarming reality, Canada continues to consider Mexico a safe country. Through the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico has become

Canada’s third largest trading partner, with Canada’s direct investment in Mexico reaching over $12.3 billion in 2013.
Faced with this situation, what position will the newly elected Canadian government take this fall? asked Inti Barrios, a member of Mexicans United for Regularization.

13 September 2015, Montreal — Mexican Federal Police violently removed a family from its home on Friday to clear the way for a private company’s land expropriation. Among those hurt by police in the fracas was Marisol Mendez Trujillo, daughter of one of the people affected. Mendez-Trujillo herself was deported from Canada in March 2013 after her refugee claim was refused. Her family lived in Canada for five years.

Mendez-Trujillo states, “This private company, Lynz Constructora, just demolished my father’s only home without even giving him a notice of expropriation! They literally chased him out of his own home!”
The victims filed an appeal for protection with a twenty days’ notice, thereby asking for a hearing on 11 September to agree on the terms of displacement. This hearing never took place and the expropriation and demolition proceeded.

Arturo Ahumada Cruz, President of Tezoyuca, accompanied by his wife, President of DIF, said that he didn’t know what conditions of expropriation were applied. He stated that, if the file had been in his hands, he would have prevented it from proceeding.

The Méndez-Trujillo family says they have evidence to show that the engineer of the building company, Mr. Roberto Muñoz, used false information to justify demolishing the family home. He falsely stated that the evicted family was asking for an excessive price for the property, tripling its real cost. For its part, the family maintains they were about to reach an agreement to exchange the property for a similar one.

Mendez-Trujillo’s father is suffering depression and her mother has uncontrollably high blood pressure. They have been stripped of all their possessions, escaping only with the clothes they were wearing.

Mendez-Trujillo writes in a text message to MUR, “The whole family is outraged, frustrated, and feels powerless. We refuse to suffer any more.”

Canadian authorities continue with its exclusionary and discretional migration policies, closing the path of Mexicans for being accepted as refugees, and condemning them to keep suffering the State violence and repression. Keeping México inside the list of “safe countries” and keeping the visa for Mexicans by reasons of criminality in Mexico is one new sample of their contradictory discriminatory policy decisions.

Mexicans United for Regularisation (MUR) demands that Mexican officials immediately restore the property to its owners and offer compensation for damages. MUR holds Mexican and Canadian authorities responsible for physical and moral harm done to the Trujillo Reyes Mendez family and the Tezoyuca community.

MUR is inviting the public to contribute to the family to help meet their immediate needs. Contributions can be sent by ELEKTRA to the direction of Priv. Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez No. 11 Barrio de la resurrección Tezoyuca, Estado de México, México.

Elections in Mexico: Organizations in Québec and Canada express their deep concern about the violent repression of the Mexican state against its civilian population

Elections in Mexico: Organizations in Québec and Canada express their deep concern about the violent repression of the Mexican state against its civilian population

Montreal, June 5 2015. Sunday the June 7 is election day in Mexico. Elections are being held to elect governors in 9 states, mayors, local deputies in 17 states and federal deputies throughout the country. The run up to this election has been marred by extensive violence; 20 political assassinations in 10 states, 6 civilian murders (4 in Ixcaputzalgo, Guerrero and 2 in Peto, Yucatan) and 6 civilian injuries as a result of an armed confrontation with government forces in Peto and Yucatán. Furthermore, 70 kidnappings and extortion cases and death threats to people have also been reported by groups linked to electoral interest.
Most importantly, delegations of the National Electoral Institute (INE) have been reportedly attacked by dissident groups in at least six states (Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz), while electoral documentation has been destroyed or burned, in Guerrero and Oaxaca.
Mexico presently, is amidst a grave human rights crisis which has been brought to the attention of the international community and human rights watch dogs by the relentless efforts of the nation’s vibrant civil society. There has been a demand of justice in the case of the 43 students who went missing last September, and also in the case of the recent targeted killings and extrajudicial murders allegedly carried out by the Mexican army, federal and local police in Tlatlaya , Apatzingan and Tanhuato. All of these cases and the callous attitude of the government has prompted protesting organisations backed by the Mexican civil society to boycott the elections. The principle demand being the safe return of the 43 missing students belonging to the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa. These innocent students were kidnapped by the local police in collusion with the federal police and the national army. We should not forget that this landmark case adds itself to the long and cruel list of more than 24,000 cases of disappearances and kidnappings at the hand of the state since 2006; with an average 13 disappearances per day, 100, 000 murders and 250 000 forced displacements, the government led by Peña Nieto ,is nothing short of an oppressive, cruel and corrupt military state running under the garb of pseudo democracy.
A statement issued on June 1, 2015 by the People’s Council Tixtla, denounced the curtailing of human rights and harassment suffered by its organization by the ministerial police who as a ploy, repeatedly infiltrated the organization in plainclothes to monitor and intimidate people linked to the organization . Moreover, the Committee of students from the Normal School of Ayotzinapa say that on June 2, 2015 the federal police illegaly stormed their premises without provocation and arrested 3 students , who had to be released 24 hours later under immense pressure from the public. Continuing the string of cruelty on Wednesday, the 3rd of June, more than 1000 armed federal police personnel were stationed near the Normal School and also reportedly attacked a civilian bus carrying students and relatives of the 43 missing students, bound for Chilpancingo in Tixtla, Guerrero; this unprovoked attack left several people grievously injured.
The civil organizations on 2nd June also reported the arrival of military tanks and fully armed contingents in the states of Guerrero and Michoacan. So far the current Mexican government has behaved like a military state using the path of intimidation, oppression and torture to resolve public issues and to suppress any conflict or voice of dissent. People have been baselessly arrested, persecuted and inhumanly tortured as revealed by Juan Mendez, in his report published in December 2014 which paints a grim picture of innocent civilians and peaceful protesters being inhumanly treated and put through misery in Mexico at the hands of the state machinery.
In the background of the atrocities, repression and the policy of criminalisation of social protest by the Mexican government, the undersigned organizations through this letter express our grave concern about the anti-democratic measures, oppression, torture and killings that may be carried out by the Mexican government in the context of maintaining order during the elections scheduled on Sunday June 7, 2015. We also demand an immediate end to the abuse of public power and strict compliance with the constitution. Most importantly, we call upon the international community to pay heed and attention to this humanitarian crisis in the making, be wary of these developments and vociferously condemn any act of oppression by any group linked to the Mexican government.
Contact
Committee for Human Rights in Latin America – 514-358-2227 – coordo@cdhal.org
Sources:
Centro de medios libres. “3 de junio ALERTA AYOTZINAPA: Continua y arrecia el sitio y represión federal a escuela normal Isidro Burgos”. Consulté le: 3 juin 2015. http://www.centrodemedioslibres.org/2015/06/03/3-de-junio-alerta-ayotzinapa-continua-y-arrecia-el-sitio-y-represion-federal-a-escuela-normal-isidro-burgos/
Elecciones en México. Consulté le: 3 juin 2015. https://ciudadania.ife.org.mx/portalElenmex2010/mapa.do?metodo=cargaDatos .
Proceso. “Elecciones 2015, el sello de la violencia”. 2 de junio del 2015. Consulté le: 3 juin 2015. http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=406191
Proceso. “Con Peña Nieto, 13 desaparecidos al día”. 7 de febrero del 2015. Fecha de consulta: 3 de junio del 2015. http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=395306
Regeneración Radio. Consulté le: 3 juin 2015. http://regeneracionradio.org/index.php/portada/item/4578-comunicado-del-consejo-popular-de-tixtla-guerrero
Informe México. Consulté le: 3 juin 2015. http://www.un.org/french/documents/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/HRC/28/68/add.3http://www.centrodemedioslibres.org/2015/06/03/3-de-junio-alerta-ayotzinapa-continua-y-arrecia-el-sitio-y-represion-federal-a-escuela-normal-isidro-burgos/

On September 26, 2014, Mexican state security forces attacked a group of students from the teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, killing 6 people and forcibly disappearing 43 others who were never seen again. The crime has pulled the veil off an acute human rights crisis in Mexico. The search for the students has uncovered more than 15 mass graves in neighbouring areas of the state of Guerrero, none of them containing the bodies of the students.

In 2012, two way trade between Mexico and Canada totalled $20 billion. As a signatory to NAFTA, Mexico is Canada’s 5th largest export destination. Despite the human rights crisis in Mexico, Canada’s refugee system has deemed it a ‘safe country’. Ms. Legideño Vargas, Mr. Balbuena, and Mr. Rosales Sierra will be pressing Canadian parliamentarians and policymakers to acknowledge the human rights crisis in Mexico, felt with particular acuteness by the country’s indigenous population; hold the Mexican government to international human rights norms; review Canada’s program of cooperation with Mexico; and eliminate barriers for people seeking protection in Canada.

Delegation in Montreal

Jorge Luis Clemente Balbuena

3rd year student of the teachers’ college Raul Isidro Burgos of Ayotzinapa, active member of the student committee and of the movement for justice for his 43 schoolmates who were disappeared by the police on September 26th.

Hilda Legideño Vargas

Mother of Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, student of the teacher’s college Raul Isidro Burgos who disappeared on September 26th.

Forty-three students disappeared: Canada must remove Mexico from its “Safe Country” List

Press Conference

4755 Van Horne Bureau 110

Sunday, November 16th, 11AM

On September 26th, 2014, forty-three students from a school in Iguala, Ayotzinapa disappeared during a political protest. Although weeks have elapsed, the Mexican state has failed to provide a plausible explanation of what happened to the students.

For Mexicans, these shocking events are just further evidence of the structural violence afflicting their country. The violence is perpetuated by a toxic alliance of right-wing politicians, drug cartels acting with increasing impunity, and police and military forces. It is intimately linked to the introduction of neoliberal measures and American involvement in the so-called war on drugs.

In light of this most recent outrage, MUR is calling on the Canadian government to remove Mexico from its so-called safe country list. Refugees from countries designated as safe by the Minister of Immigration are further disadvantaged in Canada’s already tortuous refugee process. Former Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney added Mexico to this list in February 2013, on the eve of a high level diplomatic mission to that country.

Background Structural Violence in Mexico

The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the National and Autonomous University of Mexico just released research showing that there are more than 20,000 internally displaced persons in Mexico and that 49% of Mexicans feel insecure.

In 2009, 2590 women were murdered. Mexico has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world.

Specialists, including Professor Sergio Aguayo from the University of Harvard, believe that the Igualadisappearances are part of a “pattern of terror”, originating with the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1994 (www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20141106/54418970195/matanza-iguala-patron-terror.html). According to this analysis, structural violence in the country cannot be solely explained by fights to control the drug trade but must be understood as part of a broader fight to control territories in order “to get resources in all the possible ways, whether by kidnapping, taxation, robbery, human trafficking, sale of human organs, stealing fuel from PEMEX pipes – everything it is possible to imagine …”.

On September 25th, 2014 members of the Coalition against Precarious Work will present themselves outside the office of Quebec Labour Minister Sam Hamad, with the objective of meeting with the Minister. The coalition, which includes the Temporary Agency Workers Association, Temporary Foreign Workers Association, PINAY, Immigrant Workers Centre of Montreal, Dignidad Migrante, Mexicans United for the Regularization and The Spanish Immigrants Collective of Montreal, hopes to bring to the attention of the Minister, several specific demands that we, the Coalition, believe would improve the living and working conditions of those who hold precarious employment. One of our central demands is our Living Wage campaign, which urges the increase of the minimum wage to above a subsistence salary, to a “living wage” of 15$/hour, so that workers can provide decently for themselves and their families.

According to the 2011 public report by the provincial Director of Public Health, there are over 450,000 workers in Quebec that have precarious jobs, with low wages, no or few benefits, few protections and no job security. As members of the coalition, we hold a unified position on the detrimental effects of this kind of precarious work for all members of society, in that it contributes to the abolition of stable, decently paid and often unionized work. Precarious labour is seen in many different forms, such as placement agency work, temporary employment, low-wage work, domestic work, and in Canada’s guest worker programs. Many of those who hold jobs in these positions are new immigrants, temporary foreign workers, women, and people without status. The Coalition would like to highlight that these individual’s suffer greatly from their precarious employment, which provides disincentive for workers to negotiate just and stable working conditions, and prevents them from qualifying for certain social benefits. As such, we will once again demand that the situation faced by immigrants and migrant workers must be heard, and that we are given a meeting with the current administration, in particular the office of Sam Hamad, to reiterate our demands for the establishment or revision of specific policies and regulations that would improve the quality of life and work, for those who hold precarious jobs.

Sheila Sedinger is a 27-year old mother of two girls, ages 8 and 5, who has lived in Montreal since 2005. She is scheduled to be deported to Mexico on August 30th, her younger daughter’s 6th birthday.

Sheila would not be able to bring her children with her if she is deported because of an ongoing custody case with the children’s father. Deportation would also separate Sheila from her partner, from her network of friends, and from other family members in Canada, including her father. Sheila has exhausted all her resources in fighting her immigration battle, and recently suffered an accident that leaves her dependent on a cane to walk. She has no network of support in Mexico, which she left nine years ago.

Sheila fled Mexico to escape a series of traumatic experiences related to a violent ex-partner and fears returning. Although Canada officially considers Mexico to be a safe country, in reality it has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and organized crime often works hand-in-hand with police.

Sheila’s struggle to get permanent status in Canada has been extremely difficult. A sponsorship application for Sheila was accepted by the Federal Government and Quebec in 2008. However, before the process was completed, her sponsor committed an act of violence towards Sheila’s youngest child, a crime for which he was later convicted. This ended the sponsorship. However, as a protected person, the sponsor remained in Canada despite the criminal record, and Immigration Canada informed Sheila that she could remain as well because she remained in the same file. But, in the spring of 2014, Immigration Canada abruptly informed Sheila that she had no status and had to leave Canada.

Sheila now has a pending spousal sponsorship from her partner Michael-John Carrière, as well as applications for Temporary Residence and for Permanent Residence on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds. However, the Federal government is insisting on deporting Sheila before she receives an answer on any of these applications and even before the custody of her children is settled.

An administrative stay request has already been refused by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA); the Federal Court will hear her case on August 26th.

Solidarity Across Borders invites journalists to a press conference to hear directly from Sheila and her lawyer, Me. Angela Potvin.